Teachers will begin the school year with insufficient salaries, since, according to the latest estimate published by Cendas-FVM, the Family Food Basket (CAF) for the month of August stood at 22,812 bolivars, or an equivalent of 539 dollars. To cover this basket, a level VI teacher would need 33 times their monthly salary.
The 2024-2025 school year, which is scheduled to begin on September 30, begins with several debts owed to teachers, since It has been 925 days since your last salary increase.
Currently, according to the salary table established by the Ministry of Education, a non-teaching high school graduate who works 40 hours would be receiving 264.69 bolivars, the lowest base salary established in the table. This is equivalent to 7.19 dollars according to the latest rate established by the Central Bank of Venezuela (September 25, 36.8 bolivars).
A level VI teacher, the highest level, receives 450.70 bolivars if he works 40 hours a week and 600.89 if his workload amounts to 53.3 hours. This is equivalent to $12.2 and $16.32 respectively as a base salary.
When this tabulator was established, on March 15, 2022, the dollar was at 4.24 bolivars, so the lowest salary was equivalent to approximately $62.42, while the highest was $141.71.
In two years, due to the loss of the purchasing power of the bolivar, a teacher who was in the ranks with the highest salary went from earning 140 to 16 dollars a month.
For this reason, the president of the Venezuelan Federation of TeachersCarmen Teresa Márquez points out that for this school year her main request is an increase in teachers’ salaries.
“We begin a 2024-2025 school year with the same requests for the Minister of Education regarding the discussion of the third Single and Unitary Collective Convention on the increase in teachers’ salaries,” says Márquez in conversation with SuchWhich.
He assures that they will deliver a document to the Minister of Education, Hector Rodriguezto request a meeting in which their claims can be discussed, which also include “the quality of the programs taught within Venezuelan education.”
“We want salary, not bonuses”
According to the latest estimate published by the Documentation and Social Analysis Center of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (Cendas-FVM)the Family Food Basket (CAF) for the month of August stood at 22,812.07 bolivars, or 539 dollars.
A level VI teacher would need 33 times their monthly salary to cover this basket. With the amount he currently receives, he could cover only 3% of the estimated family food.
*Read also: Family basket closed in August at $539, according to Cendas-FVM data
“The teacher cannot pay for transportation, he cannot buy shoes, he cannot dress himself, he cannot buy food to support his family,” expresses the president and educator.
He highlights that they do not ask that the salary be established at the same amount as the CAF, but “that it be close.” In interview with Union Radiothe union leader maintained that this remuneration should be established between 300 to 400 dollars.
Teachers receive the Economic War Bonus, whose value is $90 for public sector workers, after its last increase on May 1, in addition to $40 for food bonuses.
However, Márquez emphasizes that this bonus does not affect social benefits, the vacation bonus or the Christmas bonus and that it is only “a palliative.”
Workers in the Education sector have protested for these rights, although they have not been heard. In July 2024 alone, 18 labor conflicts were recorded, of which 44.44% were carried out by workers in this sector, according to the Observatory of Labor Conflict and Union Management.
Half salary, half day
Given the insufficiency of salaries, the institutional solution has been to normalize irregularity. That is why in public schools it has been decided to establish the so-called mosaic schedule, which consists of teachers teaching classes two or three days a week so that on the rest of the days dedicate themselves to other activities that generate greater economic income.
During the 2023-2024 school year, 51.95% of the teachers surveyed had alternative sources of work, according to the latest report from the School Observer Network made by the Civil Association With the School.
However, the decrease in class hours worries specialists due to the negative impact this may have on long-term learning.
The teaching union demands from the State the de facto disappearance of its right to social security with access to Medical Assistance Insurance Coverage (HCM), as well as the reestablishment of health centers for the staff of the Ministry of Education.
Although in Venezuela there is Institute of Welfare and Social Assistance for the staff of the Ministry of Education (Ipasme)the service it provides has deteriorated with little access to consultations and reduced medical specialties.
From the educational office, the response to the dismantling of Ipasme is to announce a kind of parallel plan to “improve the living conditions” of teachers, according to what Minister of Education Héctor Rodríguez said on September 22.
In the announcement he outlined an initiative that seeks to address various areas such as health, which will include ophthalmology, dentistry and elective surgery services, as well as provision of uniforms, housing, food, scholarships for training and credits, says Rodríguez’s publication on his social networks. .
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